Duleep Trophy final: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi shines versus South Zone
What's the story
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the 15-year-old prodigy, has been in stellar form in the ongoing Duleep Trophy. He made headlines during the semi-final match with scores of 92 and 40. The dashing East Zone opener also made a mark on Day 1 of the final match against South Zone at Chennai's MA Chidambaram Stadium. Sooryavanshi was at his aggressive best against India pacer Mohammed Siraj on Sunday. He went on to score a fiery 44.
Match highlights
Sooryavanshi goes after Siraj
East Zone's decision to bat first turned out to be spot on.
Sooryavanshi started slowly but shifted his gears soon after.
He hit his first boundary off Siraj in the third over.
The seventh over of the game saw Sooryavanshi smash the veteran pacer for two fours and a six.
The southpaw overall scored 22 runs off just 12 balls against Siraj.
Performance details
A quickfire knock from the young talent
Sooryavanshi scored 44 runs off 37 balls, hitting five fours and a six.
He shared a 100-run opening wicket partnership with Abhimanyu Easwaran in 14.4 overs before departing.
However, the young talent was falling just one hit short of what could have been his second half-century in the tournament when he was caught by substitute fielder Tanay Thyagarajan while trying to take Chama Milind on the bounce.
Stats
Two fifties in FC cricket
On his Duleep Trophy debut, Sooryavanshi had a disappointing outing, where he was dismissed for 8.
However, his next three scores have been 92, 40, and 44.
According to Cricinfo, the 92 was Sooryavanshi's second half-century in First-Class cricket.
He earlier scored a 33-ball 50 against Meghalaya in the Ranji Trophy.
The 15-year-old star has now raced to 391 runs across 11 FC games (16 innings) at an average of around 25.
His strike rate is over 96.